It’s another top-heavy season for the Southland’s volleyball powers.
For example, take Lincoln-Way East, which has won 18 of its last 19 matches.
“East is the best ball-control team in the area,” Lincoln-Way North coach Matt Lawrence said. “And they’re deep. They’ve got a lot of big-time hitters.”
The Griffins feature two of the area’s most explosive finishers in middle Lucas Galifos and right-side Jack Huizinga. As usual, East continues to play stellar back-row defense.
“During rallies, they’re diving all over the floor,” Griffins coach Kris Fiore said. “Eric Van Dyck leads that charge. He just flies all over the place.”
East (25-4) looks like the hottest team entering the Minooka Sectional. East topped Minooka (21-3) and Sandburg (20-3) in consecutive matches to win its 24-team invite last weekend.
Lincoln-Way North and Lincoln-Way Central shouldn’t be far off the seeding radar.
Central setter Mike Kulinski is usually on point, while North’s Ethan Klosak is making a name for himself as one of the state’s premier outside hitters.
“Ethan’s probably the best player we’ve seen this year,” St. Rita coach Brian Hagen said. “He can do it all. Hit, serve … he’d stick an arm out and make a one-handed dig.”
St. Laurence Sectional: Hagen is hoping his Mustangs have done enough to earn a top-five seed in the St. Laurence Sectional.
St. Rita (18-11, 5-1) finished second at the Libertyville Invite and won a share of its second Catholic League title, tying with Brother Rice.
“We can hang with the top teams on any given night,” said Hagen, highlighting the play of Aidan Mitchell and Mike Long.
The top three seeds are easy calls — Sandburg, Marist and Brother Rice — but it’s unclear after that. St. Rita, Stagg, Richards, Shepard, Reavis and Homewood-Flossmoor are all fighting for preferred spots.
Hot and cold: With a variety of shots and the state’s most wicked jump serve, Sandburg’s Jake Hanes packs heat like few others.
But playing hot and keeping cool are two different things, and Sandburg needs Hanes to do both in order to make a deep playoff run.
Case in point, Hanes was on fire in the finals of the Lincoln-Way East Invitational, blasting four straight aces to close out Game 1 against the Griffins. However, Hanes lost his cool on a late-game violation, which led to East’s 17-25, 26-25, 15-13 victory. He was not included on the all-tournament team.
All-tournament picks: Lincoln-Way East’s Galifos, a 6-foot-6 senior, was named MVP of the Lincoln-Way East Invitational. Galifos looks like one of the best middles in the Southland and was joined by teammate Matt Breitbarth on the all-tournament team.
Klosak, Kulinski, Joliet Catholic’s Blake Reardon, Lincoln-Way West’s Scott Christensen, Stagg’s Pat Roach and Sandburg’s Colin Ensalaco rounded out local players earning honors.
Logan Malloy is a freelance writer for the Daily Southtown.
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Won-loss records through Wednesday, with last week’s rank in parentheses.
1. Lincoln-Way East 25-4 (3)
2. Sandburg 20-3 (1)
3. Lincoln-Way North 25-5 (5)
4. Marist 23-7 (2)
5. Lincoln-Way Central 22-8 (4)
6. Brother Rice 21-6 (6)
7. Lockport 20-9 (8)
8. Lincoln-Way West 19-5 (9)
9. Richards 15-6 (10)
10. Stagg 14-10 (7)
Player of the Week: Lincoln-Way Central’s Mike Kulinski earned his third all-tournament recognition at last weekend’s Lincoln-Way East Invitational. The MIT-bound setter is about as steady as it gets at his position.